The value of Herzog's study, in addition to the factual information presented, is a tragic reminder of two interrelated truths: 1) by studying history we could learn how to make a better world in which to live; and, 2) we do not learn from history. The women's movement of recent years has two aspects which do not, for all times, go together. One moving force in its genesis is the demand that physical and emotional abuse and misuse of women by men cease. The other, not necessarily related to the first, is that of equal status, which includes equal access to employment, legal protection, compensation and, less tangibly, human dignity. Herzog presents us in this study with a society which, in its idealized form, represents an “attempt to balance the powers between the sexes.” What men and women did was not deemed the same, but men and women had parallel significant voices.
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January 1984
This article was originally published in
Explorations in Ethnic Studies
University of California Press